JOSÉ LUIS FERNÁNDEZ-PACHECO SÁEZ received his Ph.D. in Sociology and a degree in Social Work, and is a professor at the Universidad de Extremadura. Outside of academia he has wide professional experience in local community development and international cooperation. Related to this, he has worked in Morocco, Senegal and in a 4-year project in KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) where he worked on implementing a local development project based on European LEADER initiatives adapted to a vulnerable region.
As far as social and community intervention are concerned, he has also worked in San Rafael (California-U.S.) with the newcomers to the country and as a community support worker in St. Helens Municipality (United Kingdom). He did an academic stay of one year in Quito (Ecuador) where he contributed to some research related to indigenous people and cocoa production. After completion of his doctoral dissertation in 2017, he has continued researching sustainable development projects linked to circular economy and social and solidarity economy with the participation of the citizenship into the processes.